TRAVELS IN ALBANIA OTHER PROVINCES OF TURKEY IN 1809 & 1810. BY THE RIGHT HON. LORD BROUGHTON, @.C.B, Ugs.c. Boswovs] IN TWO VOLUMES.—VOL. I. ANEW EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED, 1866. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1858. The right of Translation but I made every inquiry, and could not learn that there vole trp. 8) guys: tho batile wos the Gulf With referent the apex “ certainly fought in the bay of Pre- sea, both these may be said to veaa.” The only question is, where are be in the mouth of the Ambracian the limits to which that bay may be Gulf, Anactorium fire and said to extend, I think Mr. Hughes, Action following (1804. who has devoted labour and learning _ * The low-land promontory is called 426), is right in thinking that action took place in the bay betw La Punda and the point on which D’Anville places Actium; but I see no contradiction in Thucydides saying that Anactorium was in the mouth of the Gulf, and that the temple of the to the, question (Travel, vol. ip. 1e eon, Punda, and Colonel Leake considers it sufficiently proved that it is the site of Actium (see p. 406, e6 in Greece). Mr, Cramer (vol. ii, p. 7), however, in his description of Greece, ives another opinion, and adheres to ‘Anville; if so, the ruins belong to ‘Anactorium,—{1854.]Caar. II. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. nh was at present a village, or any place, so called. The Signor Commiuti did inform me that there was a ruin to be seen on the opposite side of the water, on a spot which we afterwards visited, and saw some trifling remains of the opus reticulatum, or a wall of bricks placed lozenge-wise,* about five feet in height, and so disposed as to appear to have been circular. I do not know who had put this notion into the head of our Greek, but he called this the wall of the Hippodrome; and the fine flat which it might have enclosed gives some colour of probability to the suspicion that this was the spot chosen by the youth of Ambracia and Nicopolis for the horse and chariot races, and the celebration of the Quinquennial games, over which the Lacedemonians presided. It does not appear that there was anciently any town on the site of Prevesa, of which the first notice I have seen is, that it was besieged by Doria and by the Vene- tians in 1572, but relieved by the Turks from the inte- rior. Since the invention of gunpowder, such a position must have completely commanded the mouth of the Gulf, especially as there is no deep water except on the side of the town. The Venetians, after repeated con- tests with the Turks, at last possessed themselves of this place in 1684, as well as of Vonitza, a town in the Gulf, and of Parga and Butrinto, on the coast opposite Corfu. The domain of Prevesa extended into the ruins of Nicopolis. All these places were ceded to the French by the treaty of Campo Formio; but, during their last war with the Turks, were all abandoned, except Pre- vesa, which the Engineer Richemont, and the General * Dr. Holland adopts the conj gpinion, as stated in his ‘Travels in regard to Anactorium (Travels, ee. thern Greece,’ and also in his ‘ Hie- wee is 2 10, edit, 8v0.), but he ict Outline of the Greek Revolu- the games, after the Au- tion,’ p. 76, assigns Actium to Punda, eons were celebrated at Nico- or Akh, whieh, tho Colonel cbuerver Polis, Mr. Hughes (vol. i, p. 420) is only the ‘representative of the confirms this by a je from Dion, ancient name of ’Axr}, a peninsular lib. ii, ¢. 1. Colonel e’s deliberate promontory (vol. i. p. 175).—[1854.]12 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. Caae. I. La Salcette, were ordered to protect. The Pasha, Ali, who had for some time kept up a correspondence with the French, appeared at first inactive; but in the end of August, A.D. 1798, some French boats were seized in the Gulf, and the Adjutant-General Rose,* then in a conference with the Pasha, was imprisoned. Imme- diately the French prepared for the event. The mu- nicipal guard of the town was organised; arms and ammunition were sent to the Souliote Greeks at war with the Pasha; and a redoubt with two pieces of cannon was thrown up on the side of Nicopolis. On the night of the 12th November, Ali and his two sons, Mouctar and Veli, with a force of some thousand horse and foot,” appeared on the mountains immediately above the plain of Nicopolis. At the dawn of day the Alba- nians were posted on the hills about two miles abovo the French force, which, instead of remaining to defend the town, had marched to the site of the ruins, and were drawn up in a long line, with the redoubt cover- ing one of their wings. I had the account from an Albanian who was in the * He was on the French staff at Corfu, and was invited by Ali to 8 conference, and seized during an enter- tainment given by the Pasha, It is said that he was tortured, in order to force from him an account of the French resources in the island, and was afterwards conveyed to Constan- tinople, where he died of his wounds. The treachery is undoubted; the cruelty may have been exaggerated or invented by Mansour Effendi, who tells the story (lib. iii. p. 33). M. Vaudoncourt, in his narrative of the transaction, saya nothing of the tor- ture. Ibrahim Mansour Effendi, a French le, who hes given a sketch of his own life, and prefixed it to his volume, published his work in 1827, with this title: ‘Mémoires sur In Grace et l’Albanio pendant Ie Gouvernement d’Ali Pasha; par Ibra- him Mansour Effendi, Commandant du Génie au Service de ce Vizir: Ou pour servir de Complément aAcelui de M. de Pouqueville.’ Vau- doncourt, author of ‘Memoir on the Tonian islands,’ ¢ fan agen 7 which ap] in n in 1816, was a colonel of engineers in the French- Italian service, who was sent on @ mission by Marshal Marmont, in 1807, to the Beys of Albania and the Erze- govins, and remained in the service of Ali Pasha, He fortified the seraglio of Litaritza at Ioannina, and con- girted the citadel of Prevesa, (Sco fughes’ Travels, vol. ii. p. 200, 1854.) a > I heard ten thousand. Colonel Leake says threo or four. M. Pouque- ville’s account is evidently ‘an exag- goration. I believe Dr. Holland heard the truth from Mouctar Pasha, eldest son of Ali, who said the French made little resistance, —{ 1854. ]Cnr, II. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 13 battle, and who confessed that the French force did not amount to more than eight hundred men, all of whom were infantry. The Albanians continued some time on the hills, viewing their enemiesin front. Their priests, of whom there was a great number, then began to pray with a loud voice, and the soldiers joined them in the ‘holy exelamations. The whole body remained waving their heads, as it was described to me, and as I have myself seen in some religious ceremonies in Turkey, like a vast field of corn, and calling on the name of God with a fervour of tone and action which was soon wound up to the highest pitch of fury; until, as if with one voice, the word was given, “Out with your swords!” and the Albanian army, both horse and foot, rushed down into the plain. The French artillery began to fire; but, in a short time, both guns and men were overturned by the Turkish cavalry. The rout in an instant became general; and the Albanians, entering Prevesa with the French, involved many of the inha- bitants in a promiscuous slaughter: between Nicopolis and the town the plain was strewed with about six hundred dead bodies. Two vessels in the harbour, full of fugitives, cut their cables, and made for Santa Maura; but one of them, from being overladen, or from mismanagement, was swamped and went down. Two hundred French, with the General La Salcetto and Mons. Richemont, were taken prisoners, and conveyed to Ioannina. But the vengeance of the Pasha was reserved for the Greek inhabitants of the town, two hundred of whom were beheaded the day after the battle, in the presence of Ali himself. Since this event Prevesa has been in the hands of Ali, who has built a fortress at the bottom of the harbour, and also raised a battery at the end of the town, commanding the entrance of the port. It is the chief seaport town in Lower Albania, and is the con-14 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETO. Caap, II. tinual resort of the Greek boats of the Ionian Islands, which exchange their French and Italian manufactures for the oils, wools, cattle, and timber of Albania.* * It contained, in 1798, eight or ten thousand inhabitants; but Dr. Hol- land puts them down at three or four thousand in 1812, the number men- tioned to me in 1810. the best. account of this placein Colonel Leake’s ‘Northern Greece,’ chap. iv. vol. i. p. 176) Ali Pasha built a palace here, and the ruins of Nicopolis supplied him with materials for the structure. The palace, like most of the works of Ali, has disappeared. Mr. Lear, who visited Prevesa in Aran "y949, found no traces of it remainiug. “It had,” says be, “been utterly destroyed.” See ‘Journals of a ae Painter in Albania,’ p, $44,—[1864.]Caar. I. § JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 15 CHAPTER IiIl. The ruins of Nicopolis— Preparations for travelling in Turkey — The Dragoman — Servants — Baggage, &c. &c.— Sail down the Gulf of Arta to Salaghora — The Albanian guard of Salaghora. Tue remains of Nicopolis* (which we reached after riding slowly for three-quarters of an hour through olive-groves and a large plain of low shrubs) are more extensive than magnificent, as they cover at intervals the breadth of the isthmus, if such it may be called, from the bay anciently called Comarus, on the Ionian Sea, to the Gulf of Ambracia. After entering at a breach of a wall, which may be traced round several parts of the plains, and which may be conjectured to have separated the city from the suburbs, we were carried by our guide, the Consul’s brother, to what he called the King’s house. This is nothing but the remains of a room, on which the paint, of a dusky red and light blue, is still visible, and also a small piece of cornice. From this place we scrambled on through heaps of ruins overrun with weeds and thistles. These ruins are large masses of brickwork, the bricks of which are much thinner and longer than those in use amongst us, and are joined by interstices of mortar as large as the bricks themselves, and equally durable. Some of these masses are standing, others lying on the ground, and there are several spots in the plain so covered with the ruins as to be impassable. We went through an arched gateway, tolerably * Of these views s detailed account may be found all that can be known in given in Colonel Leake’s ‘Northern of the history, both anciont and Greece ’ (vols. i. and iii.), where also modern, of this famous city.—[1854. |16 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETO. Cuae. OT. entire, in the largest portion of the wall that is yet standing ; and going towards the Ionian Sea, came to the remains of a theatre, in which the semicircle of seats, raised about a foot one above the other, is still visible, though destroyed in some places, and choked up with earth. Underneath the theatre are several arched caves, which some one had told our Greek were the dens of the wild beasts used in the ancient games. But the arena of the theatre could not have been more than twenty-five feet in diameter, and there- _ fore not suitable to such exhibitions. The people, who occasionally clamoured for the introduction of gladi- ators and beasts as an interlude, would, in so small a space, have been content to do without such spectacles. Indeed the caves appeared to me to be formed by the falling of some of the brickwork." Proceeding till we came to no great distance from the sea-shore, we arrived at the ruins of a square building, within which, half buried in the ground, are several marble troughs: these, and the capital of one Corinthian column lying on the ground, and the shaft of another enclosed in a wall, were the only pieces of marble I saw in the ruins; but many have been carried away lately, and employed in building the fortress and palace of Prevesa, and some also have been preserved as a present to the English Resident at the court of Ali Pasha. Turning round from the sea-shore towards the Gulf, we traversed the plain to the north of the wall, which was also included in the suburbs, but is now partly ploughed, and we came to an eminence, at the foot of * Dr. Holland says,—“ The most re- markable objects amongst the ruins are a portion of the great wall of the city, with soveral large archways under it ; two theatres ; the stadium ; an aque- duct; an edifice which may probably have been the public baths of the city ; and another large building, in which have been found a marble pavement, several marble steps, perhaps those of a portico, and the fragments of some Corinthian columns.” (P. 104, vol. i.) Dr. Holland, however, believesthis ruin to have belonged to’ the theatre, and that our guide was right incalling theae cavea the dens of beasts.—(1854.] |!vy Cuap. I. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 17 the hills that terminate the isthmus to the north, not .far from the shore of the Gulf. On this we found the remains of a theatre considerably larger than the one we had before seen, and enclosed on every side. It was of stone, and the semicircular seats were in many parts entire: a more learned observer might perhaps have discovered the orchestra, the pulpitum, the proscenium, and all the other appurtenances of the ancient theatre;* I must content myself with saying that it was the least dilapidated of the remains we saw in the ruins of Nicopolis, From the eminence on which it stands there is the best view of the plain, and of the bay of Actium; and the tents of Taurus, the general of Augustus, may have been placed on this very spot. I have before mentioned that these ruins, being nearly all of brick, presented us with no very magni- ficent spectacle ; and yet, such was the extent of ground which they covered—about three miles in length from the sea to the Gulf, and perhaps a mile or more from the side of Prevesa to the theatre last mentioned—that there was something of a melancholy grandeur in the prospect before us. Part of the ruins, had been con- verted into sheep-pens. A solitary shepherd was the tenant of Nicopolis, and the bleating of the sheep, the tinkling of their bells, and the croaking of the frogs, were the only sounds to be heard within the circuit of a city whose population had exhausted whole provinces of their inhabitants. Calydon, Anactorium, Ambracia, the towns of all Acarnania, and part of Atolia, were stripped of their people and ornaments ; but the vanity, a favourite one with conquerors, which raised Nicopolis . a Hughes &2t i, p. 415, &c.) the opinion of Colonel Leake, as given iven 8 more detailed account than in his ‘ Northern Greece,’ where there i Br san of these Foins, and thinks is a ketch of beter and prin- e great theatrocapable of containing ci ing objects, at Py PST 20,000 spectators. He says that the Pa ides a more detailed and eminence behind the theatre, called scientific plan by onalon, appended Mount Mikhelitzi, was the site of to the volume.—{1864.] the tent of Augustus, This also is VOL. 1. c18 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. Cuap. II. by the desolation of the neighbouring states, could not secure for it a long continuation of splendour and pros-. perity. The Emperor Julian found the city in a rapid decay ; and in the reign of Honorius, Nicopolis was the property of Paula, a Roman matron. The irruption of the Goths immediately succeeded; and the city of victory, which was raised by Augustus, may perhaps have been finally ruined by Alaric* We returned from the ruins by the side near the sea over a green plain, which was the burying-place of the city, as some tombs lately discovered appear to manifest. We passed through the court-yard of a barrack, struck into the olive-grounds, and arrived at the Consul’s house, determining to set out for Ioannina the next day. From Prevesa to Ioannina there are two routes. One of these, taking a north-easterly direction, crosses the plain of Nicopolis, and passes over the mountains be- longing to a district now called Liros, from a town of that name, at six hours’ distance from Prevesa: thence it runs through a valley, and afterwards over rugged hilly ground to Vrontza, a village seven hours from Toannina. We were advised, being yet unprovided with a guard, not to follow this road, as the country of Luiros was at that time not quite safe, and were accordingly directed to take the other route, by Arta, which is con- sidered the longest of the two journeys to the capital. But this is the place to give some information as to our equipage, and the preparation made by us for tra- velling in Turkey. This detail, into which travellers seldom condescend to enter, and which may be a little tiresome, would, however, I believe, be useful to any who may make a tour in the Levant. We had been provided at Patras with a Greek, to serve as dragoman, or interpreter, to us; he was not, * Mr. Hughes (vol. i! p. 424, note) sion of Totila, and refers to & quotes Procopius to Prove that Jus- of Cedrenus to show that it joined a tinjan repaired some of the dilapidated revolt of the Bulgarians against the edifices of Nicopolis after the inva- Byzantine Emperor in 1084.—[1854.}u Cnap. IT. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 19 however, master of the Turkish language, which it is not indispensable to know in Albania, as the Mahometans of the country, for the most part, can speak the Romaic or vulgar Greek. Doubtless, however, it would have been better to have procured a person acquainted both with the Turkish and the Albanian languages; and as such servants are to be met with at Prevesa, it would have been better if we had delayed to engage any one until ourarrival at that town. The professional interpreters, by which I mean those who are in the habit of being recommended to travellers, are most of them exceedingly roguish, and there is no advantage which they will not endeavour to take, especially of Englishmen, who are generally expected to have more money than wit. There is a Constantinopolitan proverb which runs thus —* Dio mi guardi dai dragomani, io mi guardero dat cani.” It is as well to know this, for a great deal depends upon your choice of a dragoman. He is your managing man: he must procure you lodging, food, horses, and all conveniences; must direct your pay- ments—a source of continual disturbance ; must support your dignity with the Turks, and show you how to make use of the Greeks: he must, consequently, be not only active and ingenious, but prompt and resolute. Now you would very seldom find a Greek deficient in the former, or possessed of the latter qualifications; in this respect their very dress is against them. Thosé’ who have been in Turkey know that it is contrary the nature of things for a man in the Greek habit to talk in any other than the most submissive cringing tone to a Turk; and on this account it is always preferable ' to engage a person accustomed to wear the dress of. a Frank, a name that includes all those, of whatever nation, who are dressed in the small-clothes, the coat, and the hat of civilized Europe. Such persons are ; often to be met with at Malta, or any of the ports of the/ Levant; they are natives of the islands of the Archi- c220 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. Crap. TH, pelago, whic have lived in the service of: foreigners ) at Constantinople, and know how to assume an air of { importance, and even ferocity, in presence of a Turk, with the utility of which a traveller does not become [ immediately acquainted. The Greek appears to feel himself free the moment he places the hat upon his head, and throws away the cap, which, in our own times, and in another country, was the badge of liberty. Our dragoman was recommended to us as the most upright of men; but we found him to be one of those servants whose good conduct does not so much depend upon their own probity as upon the vigilance of their masters. He never lost an opportunity of robbing us. He was very zealous, bustling, and talkative; and when we had him, we thought it would be impossible to do without him; when he was gone, we wondered how we had ever done with him. However, he was a good- humoured fellow, and having his mind intent upon one sole thing, that is, making money of us, was never lazy, or drunken, or out of the way; he was up early and late, for he always slept upon his saddle-bags without undressing. His name was George; but he was usually called Mister George—Kyrie Yorye Kipt Teopy:). We had only one English servant with us, who was Lord: Byron’s valet ; for I was fortunately disappointed the day before I left London of the man who was to have accompaniéd me in our travels; I say fortunately, because English servants are rather an encumbrance than otherwise in the Levant, as they require better accommodation than their masters, and are a perpetual source of blunders, quarrels, and delays. Their inapti- tude at acquiring any foreign language is, besides, invincible, and seems more stupid in a country where many of the common people speak three, and some four or five languages. Our baggage was weighty ; but, I believe, we could not have done well with less, as aCuar. Til. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 21 large quantity of linen is necessary for those who are much at sea, or travel so fast as not to be able to have their clothes washed. Besides four large leathern trunks, weighing about eighty pounds when full, and three smaller trunks, we had a canteen, which is quite indispensable ; three beds, with bedding, and two light wooden bedsteads. The latter article some travellers do not carry with them, but it contributes so much to com- fort and health as to be very recommendable. We heard, indeed, that in Asiatic Turkey you cannot make use of bedsteads, being always lodged in the hans or inns; but in Europe, where you put up in cottages and private houses, they are always serviceable, preserving you from vermin and the damp of mud floors, and pos- sessing advantages which overbalance the evils caused by the delays of half an hour in packing and taking them to pieces. We were also furnished with four English saddles and bridles, which was a most fortunate circumstance, for we should not have been able to ride on the high wooden pack-saddles of the Turkish post-horses; and though we might have bought good Turkish saddles, both my friend and myself found them a very uncom- fortable seat for any other pace than a walk. Whilst on the article of equipage, I must premise that, as all the baggage is carried on horses, it is neces- sary to provide sacks {o carry all your articles. These sacks you can get of a very useful kind in the country. They are made of three coats; the inner one of waxed canvas, the second of horse-hair cloth, and the outward of leather. Those which we bought at Ioannina were large enough to hold, each of them, a bed, a large trunk, and one or two small articles; and they swing like panniers at each side of the horse. Some travellers prefer a large pair of saddle-bags and to have a large chest or trunk, which they send round by sea to meet them, or leave at one fixed spot;22 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. Cuar. Ill. but this isa bad plan. The saddle-bags will not carry things enough for you; and then to have your ward- robe at any fixed spot binds you to one route, and pre- vents you from taking advantage of opportunities. As to sending baggage round by sea, it is a very hazardous experiment : we were detained three weeks at Gibraltar, waiting for clothes which, as we rode from Lisbon to Cadiz, we had ordered to be sent by sea. A traveller in this country should provide himself with dollars at Malta, in a sufficient quantity to defray the charges of his whole tour in European Turkey. These he will be able to exchange without any loss at Patras, or elsewhere, for Venetian zequins, which are golden coins, and much more portable. Having lodged your dollars in the hands of the merchant in the Levant, you may take bills, to save you the risk and trouble of carrying money, upon the most respectable Greeks in the towns through which you mean to pass. This is a better scheme than that of travelling with bills drawn upon Constantinople, where the exchange is very fluc- tuating, and oftener against than for the English merchant, The accountsin Turkey are kept in piasters. ‘When you can get seventeen and a half of these for the credit of a pound sterling, you may consider the exchange at par.* There are several gold coins current in Turkey ; the smallest of which is a pretty coin, worth two piasters and a half, or in some places a little more. The Vene- tian zequin varies in value from ten to eleven piasters. Of the money made of silver, much debased, there are pieces of two piasters and a half, of two piasters, and of one piaster : besides these there are small coins called paras, forty of which go to a piaster, and which are very thin, and not so big as a note wafer. The asper, been the debasement of the Turkish for the credit of @ pound sterling. — money since that time, that no less [1854.] * All this refers to 1809, Such has than 10 Pissters may now be hadCur. 10. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 283 which is’ the third of a para, I never saw; and copper there is none. It is necessary to be cautious in pro- curing money in Turkey, as, from the great variety and changeable value of the coin, and also from the number of bad pieces in circulation, it is a very easy matter to be cheated, and the Greeks are generally ready to doa traveller that service. Equipped in the manner which I have thought it necessary to premise, we procured a large boat to con- vey us down the Gulf, as far as a place called Salag- hora, the port of Arta; and on the Ist of October, in the forenoon, proceeded on our journey. We sailed part of the way, being assisted by a strong breeze, the forerunner of a thunder-storm that was collecting over the mountains to the north; and were rowed by our six boatmen the remainder of the distance. The Gulf runs in a south-easterly direction, and, in what may be called the jaws of it, there is, on the northern side, a large bay, forming the long beach of Nicopolis; and on the south, the bay of Actium and the promontory now called Punda. Beyond Punda is the other bay, con- taining in a deep woody recess the town of Vonitza; and there are many circular inlets or smaller bays on both sides of the Gulf. The country on every side is mountainous, but less so to the south than to the north, as, near Vonitza, there are low hills and valleys clothed with an agreeable verdure. The prospect, however, is terminated on every side with tremendous rocks; and as the entrance to the Gulf is winding, and therefore not perceptible in many points, the whole expanse of water has the appearance of a large fresh lake, and did indeed put me somewhat in mind of Loch Lomond. A woody island, where there is a monastery, and some small rocks, with which the sea is studded to the east of Vonitza, served to strengthen the illusion.* * Mr. Hawkins made a trigono- twenty different pointe. It may be, metrical chart of this gulf from as Mela calls it, “the most noble of24 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. Cuae. Il, In two hours and a half we had reached the place of our destination, where we had been informed we should find horses, and be enabled to proceed to Arta the same evening. Salaghora, about twelve miles from Prevesa by water, on the northern side of the Gulf, was the name of this place; but we were surprised, after having heard that it was the port of Arta, to find that there was only one house there, and a new-built barrack at a little distance. We landed, just in time to avoid the storm, at a little rugged pier, and put the baggage under cover, at the same time delivering a letter, given us by the Vice-Consul’s brother at Prevesa, to the Greek in- habiting this wretched-looking place, which we found was the custom-house. The Greek, who was collector of the duties, was extremely civil to us; but said that there were only four horses ready, and that we should be obliged to sleep in the adjoining barrack. After accusing ourselves for not having sent before us from Prevesa, in order to procure horses, we of course consented to what we could not prevent, and were shown into the barrack. This also belonged to Ali Pasha, or, as he is called throughout his extensive dominions, the Vizier, the denomination of every Pasha of three tails: it had only been built two years. The under part of it was a stable, and the upper, to which the ascent was by a flight of stone stairs, consisted of a long open gallery of wood, with two rooms at one end of it, and one at the other. In the single room, which was locked up, the Vizier was accustomed to lodge when he visited the place; but the other two rooms were appropriated to ten Albanian soldiers, placed there all the gulf of Epirus,” but still a second, called ‘Travels in various small expanse of water. (Walpole’s Countries of the East,’ was published Travels, vol. ii, p. 486.) Mr. Wal- in 1820—both of them most valuable pole’s first volume, called ‘Memoirs contributions to s traveller's library. relating to European and Asiatic —[1354.} ‘Turkey,’ was published in 1817; hisCuar. Til. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 25 to protect the custom-house, which it is of some im- portance to guard, as Salaghora is the chief, if not the only scale (to use a Levant phrase), through which the imports and exports of all Lower Albania are obliged to pass, and which levies a duty of three per cent. upon all imported merchandize belonging to a Turk, and of four per cent. upon the goods of the Christian trader. — We were introduced to the Captain of this guard; and, as we passed that evening and the next day and night in the barrack, we had at once an initiation into the way of life of the Albanian Turks, It was impos- sible for any men to have a more unsavoury appearance ; and though the Captain, whose name was Elmas, was a little cleaner than the others, yet he was not much to be distinguished from his soldiers, except by a pair of sandals, and a white thin round stick, which he used in walking, and which, like the vine-rod of the Roman centurions, is a badge belonging to, or affected by, the better sort of soldiers in Turkey. Notwithstanding, however, their wild and savage appearance, we found them exceedingly mild and good-humoured, and with manners as good as are usually to be found in a barrack. We put up our beds in one of their apartments, and were soon well settled. Immediately on our entrance the Captain gave us coffee and pipes; and, after we had dined in our own room on some fish, bread, and wine, he begged us to come into his chamber and pass the evening with him, to which we consented. The only furniture in the soldiers’ apartment was a raised low stage, like that used in a kennel, and upon this, covered with a mat, we seated ourselves cross-legged next to the Captain. This officer lived in a very easy familia- rity with his men, but had a most perfect control over them, and they seemed to do everything he wished very cheerfully.26 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. — Guar. II. All the Albanians strut very much when they walk, projecting their chests, throwing back their heads, and moving very slowly from side to side; but Elmas had this strut more than any man perhaps we ever saw afterwards; and as the sight was then quite new to us, we could not help staring at the magisterial and super- latively dignified air of a man with great holes in his elbows, and looking altogether, as to his garments, like what we call a bull-beggar. After walking about in the walled enclosure of the barrack, and enjoying the last rays of the setting sun that were gilding the woody hills and the towers of Vonitza on the other side of the Gulf, we again seated ourselves at the never-failing coffee and pipe, to which the liberality of the Captain had added some grapes, and, by the help of our dragoman, kept up a conversa- tion of some length with the Albanians, It may be supposed that an Englishman has many articles about him to excite the curiosity of such people ; but we found this curiosity, though incessant, to be by no means impertinent or troublesome. They took up our watch-chains and looked at them, then looked at each other, and smiled. They did not ask a great many questions, but seemed at once satisfied that the thing was above their comprehension; nor did they praise or appear to admire much, but contented themselves with smiling and saying nothing, except “ English goods! English goods!” or, to give it in their Greek, “mpdypara "Iyyreoua! xpayyara "lyyreowa!l” A glass of marascine was given to Captain Elmas, and another offered to one of his men, who refused it, being, as he said, under an oath not to touch anything of the kind. Is not this self-denial called kegging by the Irish? Elmas drank seven or eight glasses of aniseed aqua- vite, and said it gave him an appetite. About seven the Albanians made preparations for their supper by washing hands. Dragoman GeorgeCaar. I. JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. 27 said, “If these fellows did not do this they would have as bad an odour as the Jews.” The Turks pretend | they can know a Christian by the smell. : They placed a round table, raised on two strips of wood three inches from the ground, before the Captain, and the men sat round on mats on the floor. The sup- per was fish fried with oil, which they ate with their fingers out of one dish, and curded goat’s milk with bread ; but in this second course they made use of horn spoons. After supper the Captain washed his hands with soap, inviting us to do the same, for we had eaten a little with them. He put the ewer into my lap; but he would not give the soap into my hands, though I was sitting close to him, but put it on the floor within an inch of me. /This he did with so singular an air, ( that I inquired of George the meaning of it; and found that in Turkey there is a very prevalent super- stition against giving soap into another’s hands: they i think it will wash away love. 7 We now smoked, ate grapes, and conversed; and everything was much to our satisfaction, except the habit, to which we were not then familiarized, of fre- quent and most violent eructation from our hosts. The Turks continue at this sport so long, and are so loud, as to make it appear that they do it on purpose; and I once heard that it is done by visitants as a compliment, to show their host that they have digested his good fare. The Moors of Barbary continue croaking for five minutes, and Stavorinus' observed the same peculiarity in the lords and ladies of the court of Bantam. Per- sons of all ranks allow themselves this liberty (I have noticed it in the divan at Constantinople) without shame or restraint; but they would look upon an indecency, however accidental, of another kind, as a pollution and an affront. * Voyage to the East Indies, &c., vol. i. cap. 3, p. 84.28 JOURNEY THROUGH ALBANIA, ETC. Cur. III. We retired to bed before ten; and the Albanians, pulling out their pistols from their waists, loosening their girdles, and wrapping themselves up in their shaggy great-coats (or capotes), lay down and slept upon their mats. It rained hard the next day, and we spent another evening with our soldiers. The Captain Elmas tried a fine Manton gun belonging to Lord Byron, and, hitting his mark every time, was highly delighted, and offered to receive it in exchange for his own.; but being informed that it was intended for the Vizier his master, he did not press the bargain. This day we observed one of the soldiers rubbing, or rather kneading, one of his comrades forcibly on the neck and arms, and pulling his joints. This is the Albanian cure for a cold in the limbs. We were now quite familiar, and on very easy terms together. In the evening they laughed and sang, and were in high spirits: one of them, as in other small societies, was their butt, and they made us the instru- ments of their jokes against him. We were inquiring names: one of them was “ Abdoul,” another “ Yatchee,” and a third we were told to call “Zourlos.” This person did not seem pleased with our dwelling on his name, and it was not long before we learnt that we had been calling him “Blockhead,” the interpretation of the modern Greek word with which we had addressed him. They finished our entertainment by singing some songs both in Albanian and modern Greek. One man sang, or rather repeated, in loud recitative, and was joined in the burthen of the song by the whole party. The music was extremely monotonous and nasal; and the shrill scream of their voices was increased by each putting his hand behind his ear and cheek, as a whipper-in does when rating hounds, to give more force to the sound. They also dwelt a considerable